Weekly Cryptonews

09:20 01.02.2019

Bill Barhydt, Abra CEO:“…if you can collateralize real-world assets using crypto, [without] introducing new third-party custodians, you’re onto something really interesting. Because now you can represent fiat currencies, stocks, bonds, commodities in a way that doesn’t require you to become a bank. That’s interesting. You’ve got a combination of hard money and regulatory arbitrage to solve real consumer problems. That’s what I think it’s going to take to break into developing markets.”

Bitcoin has started to look for its bottom again. On Monday, the digital asset could not hold the $3,618 level and fell below $3,510. Since then, bulls managed to push the cryptocurrency to the $3,567 level but were too weak to stay at this high. On the H4, the price for Bitcoin bounced from the $3,567 level on Thursday morning and started to fall. Today, it has already moved down towards the support at $3,447 but managed to recover a bit. The next support lies at $3,378. If bulls get stronger, Bitcoin will rise to the resistance at $3,510. If they are too strong to break this level the next resistance is placed at $3,567.

Fresh announcements:

The Ethereum network started to accept Bitcoins for payments. Kyber Network, Republic Protocol and BitGo released a token connected with BTC.

The delay of the Constantinople update for Ethereum caused problems for miners. They mine 15 thousand ETH a day instead of 20 thousand ETH.

CBOE resubmits the Vaneck and SolidX Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) proposal for the approval by the US Security and exchange commission. Last week the proposal was taken back due to the government shutdown.

Litecoin developers opened a discussion to make their cryptocurrency a privacy coin, such as Monero and Zcash this year.

Regulations:

Marshall islands reached an agreement with the Swiss developer of the hardware wallets to issue blockchain banknotes for their future government cryptocurrency.

National bank of Kuwait set to use Ripple for International Remittances.

The Italian government announced the first set of regulations to blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies. After this step, it is necessary for the government to approve the decree for it to have legal validity and the technologies can be used in official activities.

New-Yorkers are now allowed to buy Bitcoin at ATMs, using debit cards.

Washington State introduced a bill encouraging the development of Blockchain and technologies.